Welcome to Vol. 16 of Diversity rocks innovation! Darren Menabney helps individuals and organizations learn how to collaborate, communicate, and create remotely and across cultures. Darren was born in Belfast in Northern Ireland and moved to Toronto as a small child, finally moving to Japan for study and work. His global perspective has been one that was seeded early on and has continued to be utilized in his life and work, including now as he teaches business students and organizations about global business leadership, and the future of work. We are thrilled to have Darren as one of our speakers in the men’s DEI executive education program: Wolfpack.

In this episode you’ll hear:

How Darren’s childhood gave him a foundation in thinking globally
Darren’s experience volunteering for the G20 and G8 summits with the Japanese delegation
Why Darren chose to do his MBA in Japan
Why innovation requires an environment where it is safe to fail
How global companies can use the lessons learned during COVID to offer employees more flexible work conditions and autonomy

About Darren:

As a remote work communication and creativity consultant, Darren helps individuals and organizations overcome the challenges of communicating, collaborating, and creating when working with hybrid and remote teams.

His mission and passion are to help individuals and organizations harness their innate creativity and, through storytelling, share that with the world.

Darren spent over 20 years working for the Canadian federal government, working with startups, and running programs to boost Ontario's innovation ecosystem. In 2011 he decided to take his career in a new direction by moving to Japan.

Darren has extensive experience teaching to corporate clients through the corporate education department at GLOBIS University and through his own practice. He has created and taught sessions on Leading Global Virtual Teams, Storytelling, Leading Hybrid Teams, Design Thinking to leaders and executives at Japanese and global corporations like Cartier, NTT Data, RAC Insurance of Western Australia, Chugai Pharmaceuticals, or public sector entities such as the US Navy.

As a professor and partner faculty at the Graduate School of Management, GLOBIS University, he teaches international MBA students, with an average student satisfaction rating of 95%.

He loves sharing knowledge and insights to help others get better. As a contributing writer for Forbes.com and FastCompany.com, he writes articles on storytelling, presentations, and working remotely or across cultures. As part of the IDEO U teaching team, he delivers online courses on design thinking, storytelling, and presentation skills.

In his day job, he leads global human resources projects at Ricoh Company Limited, strengthening employee engagement plus diversity and inclusion and building a stronger global culture among Ricoh's 90,000 employees.

Connect with Darren:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dmenabney/

Connect with Jackie:

Website: https://en-joi.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-f-steele-phd/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/enjoidiversityandinnovation

https://www.facebook.com/jackiefsteelephd

Instagram: www.instagram.com/enjoi_diversity_innovation/

Collaboration, Communication and Creativity: Thought partnering with Darren Menabney